


Just a Bunch of Hocus Pocus

by Khafushun



Category: Hocus Pocus (1993), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hocus Pocus Fusion, Bad Decisions, Dark Magic, Evil Dori, Evil Nori, Evil Ori, Halloween, Light Angst, M/M, Minimal humor, Modern Middle Earth, Sibling Incest, Teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 07:31:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12576776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khafushun/pseuds/Khafushun
Summary: All Kíli had wanted to do was spend some quality time with his brother on Halloween. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a bit of trick-or-treating and perhaps sharing a ghost story or two. He certainly hadn’t planned on bringing three evil witches back from the dead.If only they hadn’t been virgins – then none of this would have ever happened!





	Just a Bunch of Hocus Pocus

They were both too old for trick-or-treating (or so everyone liked to say), but Kíli had never been one to let societal expectations get in the way of doing what he wanted. Today was no exception. Kíli readjusted his witch hat and grabbed his plastic jack-o’-lantern – the same one he’d used to go trick-or-treating ever since he was a kid. “Are you ready yet?” he called down the hallway.

Fíli eventually emerged, wearing the same outfit he’d worn to school that day, along with a pair of sunglasses – despite the fact that it was already nearly dark. Kíli wrinkled his nose. “And what the hell are _you_ supposed to be?”

“Someone who wants to get this whole thing over with.”

Kíli scowled. “Killjoy.”

Fíli just grunted, and made for the door.

It didn't take them long to complete the circuit around their new neighborhood: Ered Luin was a lot smaller than Erebor, the city they had lived in before their mother had decided to make a new start out west. Kíli missed his friends and all of his old, familiar hangouts, but on the whole, he was excited to make more friends and explore the new forests and mountain valleys nearby.

Fíli, on the other hand, hadn't been so quick to adjust to their new locale.

“We done here?” Fíli asked after Kíli had returned from the last house, stuffing his hands in his jean pockets with a stiff movement.

Kíli looked at his phone. “It's not even eight o'clock yet! We can't go back!”

“What else is there to do? We've already hit every house in the neighborhood.”

“Not _every_ house.” Kíli's eyes lit up as he bit back an excited grin. “Haven't you heard the local legend about the Ri brothers?”

“Ri brothers?” Fíli frowned. “The three witches?”

“Dori, Nori, and Ori. Executed more than 300 years ago for practicing dark witchcraft and _murder_ _.”_ Kíli made his best attempt at a ghoulish laugh. “Legend has it that they mostly targeted children, so they could steal their youth and stay young forever.”

“Man, you really eat this stuff up.” But there was a fond grin on Fíli’s face as he said it, one that Kíli realized that he had missed rather badly. “Guess we best avoid the Ri house, then. Sounds like you'd be just their kind of target.”

“Shut up,” Kíli said, glaring. “I'm only a year younger than you.”

Fíli gave Kíli's candy pail a hard look. “Yeah, well, you sure don't act like it sometimes.”

Kíli looked down then, feeling self conscious for the first time all night. He didn’t care what most people thought, but Fíli was a different story. “Look, do you want to check out the Ri house or not? It was a museum back in the '90s but they've shut it down now.” He looked up at his brother again, eyes gleaming. “Technically, we'd be trespassing...”

“But it's Halloween.” Fíli grinned. “Rules no longer apply.”

Kíli let out a breath and smiled back at his brother. “Glad you finally see things my way.”

 

* * *

 

Kíli hadn't actually meant for them to go inside the old decrepit house – maybe just hang out in the overgrown yard and share some of his Halloween haul. Perhaps even trade a few ghost stories. But Fíli, apparently, had other ideas.

“They've got this place locked up pretty good,” he muttered, tugging at an old door latch. He turned his head and smirked at Kíli. “You might be safe from these witches after all, little brother.”

“Ha, ha. Funny. Look, I've got like a _million_ Three Musketeers bars and I _hate_ those, do you want mine or not?”

Fíli turned around, the light of the full moon glinting off his teeth. “Getting scared, Kíli?”

“No.” Kíli glowered. Of course he wasn't. “I just don't see how you're getting in there without breaking a window or something.” Fíli raised an eyebrow. “That wasn't a suggestion.”

“Nah, I suppose you're right. Maybe we should just go home and watch _Nightmare Before Christmas.”_

“I like the sound of that.” Kíli gave his brother a considering look. “Sure you don't want to hit some costume party instead though?” He figured Fíli would have better things to do than hang out with his little brother on Halloween night.

“Don't think I'm dressed appropriately.” Fíli crossed his arms. “Also, getting an invite to one of those things kind of requires that you have _friends,_ and I'm a bit short on those lately.”

Kíli blinked. “You mean... you haven't made any friends yet?”

“Aw, fuck.” Fíli kicked at the old door with the heel of his shoe. “Didn't mean to let that slip.”

Kíli opened his mouth, perhaps to express his astonishment that Fíli, the most popular kid back at Erebor High, hadn't managed to make a single friend in the two months they'd been living in Ered Luin. He never got the chance, though. With a loud creak, the door to the old Ri house swung open, and suddenly Fíli's predicament seemed a lot less pressing than it had just a moment before. Kíli dug into his pocket for his phone and switched the flashlight on. “Holy shit. Do we go in?”

Fíli shrugged his shoulders, back to the surly teenager from earlier that evening. “Yeah, sure. Why not.”

They walked inside. Kíli was thankful it was a full moon that night; the pale light shone through the windows, helping him get his bearings. The room they had stepped into wasn't very large, but still big enough that it could have accommodated a modestly-sized group of tourists. Large, man-sized cages were hanging from the ceiling, and an even larger cauldron stood near the fireplace. Kíli shivered and stepped closer to Fíli, suddenly imagining all of the horrible things that the Ri brothers had reportedly done to their victims. Legend had it that the bones of a hundred children were buried within the building's walls.

“Hey, check this out.” Fíli stepped over to a display case and raised his phone, revealing an ugly brown book beneath the protective glass, it's leathery cover wrinkled with age. “’The spellbook of Dori Sanderson,’” he read aloud, “'given to him by the Devil himself. Bound in human skin' – ugh, _sick_ – 'it contains the recipes for his most powerful and evil spells.'” He glanced over at Kíli, an amused expression on his face. “Pretty spooky, huh?”

Kíli grunted noncommittally. He was still eyeing the large cages overhead, a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. He had no doubt that some of the displays had been added in recent years for dramatic effect, but he couldn't help but wonder just what was real – and what had happened to all of the innocent people who had once been tortured there.

The sound of Fíli laughing broke his morbid train of thought. “Kíli! Come over here.” His brother was standing in front of a new display now, a wide grin on his face – one that Kíli had learned over the past sixteen years that he should _never_ trust. “I think you'll like this one.”

Kíli approached the exhibit warily. Fíli was standing in front of a large, unlit candle, the wax discolored and covered in strange carvings. “Behold, the Candle of the Black Flame!” Fíli's voice was dripping with derision as he read from the informational placard posted to the display. “Made from the tallow of a still born calf and the fat of a hanged man, this candle was used by the Brothers Ri to illuminate the pages of their spell book while they conjured.”

“How nice.” Kíli grimaced. “What makes you think I'd like this?”

“Not finished yet.” Fíli smirked. “Legend has it that on a full moon it will raise the spirits of the dead... when lit by a _virgin_ on Halloween night.” He tossed Kíli his lighter. “I figured you might want to have a go at it.”

“Funny.” Kíli caught the lighter with a snarl. “But I'll let you do the honors.” He shoved his hand against Fíli's chest, pressing the lighter into the fabric of his brother's jacket.

Fíli raised an eyebrow, his face otherwise expressionless. “Not eligible, I'm afraid.”

“What do you mean you're not– with _who??”_ Jealousy suddenly gripped him, and Kíli practically roared, “Your right hand doesn't count!”

Fíli rolled his eyes. "Left, for the record.”

“Whatever.” Kíli dropped the lighter into his brother's waiting hand. “Well, go ahead.”

“You really want me to light this thing?”

“Sure, why not?” Kíli smiled tauntingly. “If you're really _not_ a virgin, then nothing happens and no harm done. Right?”

“I think you're putting an awful lot of stock in this legend, you know.” Fíli didn't seem all that bothered as he flicked the lighter on, much to Kíli's dismay. Maybe he really _wasn't_ a virgin. That thought bothered Kíli more than anything else he had considered since entering the Sanderson house, if he were being honest. His eyes watched carefully as Fíli's hand inched closer to the wick, looking for the merest hint of a clue. Who had it been, and _when?_ Almost definitely before they had moved, but as far as he knew, Fíli had never dated anyone.

Fíli's eyes met his over the candle, and he smirked. “Come on, don't look at me like that. You know this is all just a bunch of hocus pocus.” Without waiting for a response, he reached forward and lit the black flame candle.

Kíli held his breath, watching as the wick took to the flame. And then… nothing.

It was just an ordinary candle flame.

Immediately, Kíli’s heart sank. Oh, sure, most likely the candle would have done nothing even if _he_ had lit it, but he had still hoped for a sign, no matter how unlikely, that Fíli was just waiting for Kíli to get a bit older before he made his move. Not that _Kíli_ had any qualms about underage fooling around, mind you – and he wasn't exactly subtle about it, either – but so far, Fíli hadn't taken the hint. Kíli had always thought that Fíli was just trying to do things right by him, but maybe... maybe Fíli just wasn't interested. Screwing around with your own brother probably wasn't for everyone, after all.

Just as Kíli's spirits were beginning to descend to an all-time low, it happened: _the candle flame_ _began to_ _turn black._

Though, ‘turning black' was a poor way to describe what was happening. It would have been more accurate to say that, instead of giving _off_ light, the candle was now sucking it all in, creating something like a miniature black hole right there in the middle of the room. It was unlike anything Kíli had ever seen before: not in real life, and not in a movie. Though the flame itself was bright, at its center was a core of pitch black – and the rest of the room seemed to be getting darker now to match it.

“Get away from there!” Kíli shouted, and pulled Fíli back from the creeping darkness.

“It's probably designed to do that,” Fíli insisted, though his voice was unsteady. “It's gotta be some kind of stunt.”

“No,” Kíli insisted, shaking his head, just as the boards of the old house began to creak under a sudden gust of wind. “This is _magic.”_

Beneath the howling wind, another sound emerged: laughter.

The door creaked open, and the sound of footsteps filled the room. Kíli could only cling to Fíli and hope that they wouldn’t be seen – because he knew _exactly_ who those footsteps belonged to.

“My brothers!” a new voice cried out. “We have _returned!”_

 

**Author's Note:**

> I confess: I actually wrote this over a year ago for FiKi Week 2016, but wasn't able to finish it in time :P And it's still unfinished! But I thought some of you might enjoy reading this anyway :) Happy Halloween!!


End file.
